People, even in their dangerous and harm's-way ignorance, should generally not be forced to obey the Law against their wills. However, they should be informed or directed that they are required to comply with whatever Biblically-concordant laws have been established by authority (which laws are genuine laws of whatever kinds and not merely debatable or conflicting opinions), in the sense that individuals must conform to them or else experience the disruptive, destructive, and perhaps lethal consequences (and much more) against themselves and/or others by not obeying those laws.
Heard tell -- (or, rumor has it) -- that . . . years and years ago . . . people who were educated in prairie and even small-town schoolhouses by reading the Judeo-Christian Holy Bible as the main text of educational curriculum did not have State-issued Marriage Licenses. True?
Also, heard tell that they initially bartered with Indians for food and other commodities as they were heading out West, and did financial transactions in gold and silver coinage, culminating in Gold or Silver Certificates they could directly convert to the equivalent value in actual gold or silver metals. Correct?
Back in the 1800s (and early 1900s) no one had any Social Security numbers (being that FDR and associates instituted Social Security in the 30s). Yes?
When people within the United States began to drift away from studying the Bible, and got into studying divergent commentaries such as the works of Charles Darwin and Marx in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the seeds of control by human government took the place of control by the Holy Spirit bestowed by public-school Bible reading, resulting in the initiation of Marxist-Leninist Communism, rising hems of women's skirts, sexist suffrage of women demanding to vote, bank-robbing gangsters of New York and Chicago and elsewhere, plus the Great Depression of 1929, with the rise of concentration-camp Nazism and imperialistic aggression of Japan we now call World War II.
By the time people came to the 50s, typical American Leave It To Beaver-type communities mentioned almost nothing about Christianity nor the Bible, and - by order of government officials accommodating to increasingly lawless citizenry - Bible reading and prayer was adjudicated out of public schools with the wayward approved of heretic theologians and pastors embracing corrupt bible translations, resulting in the onslaught of the hippie 60s during the no-win Viet Nam War (similar to the no-win Korean War previously) characterized by even more severe displays of rebellious immodesty and rioting.
Again, a century or more ago, especially during the 1800s, the great composers of Europe - thriving in an orderly Scripturally-fluent society of decency without present-day distractions of mass porn and exhibitionist lewdity, wrote their fabulous musical masterpieces -- while the women were attired with puritannical, amish-like, burka-and-hijab-equivalent hairstyles and clothing.
No Driver's Licenses nor seat-belt laws were required to ride horses or carriages over the vast open-area plains and forests and deserts of America (although there probably were some rules as to where they could be ridden and which horse(s) belonged to who).
But nowadays, as both you and I know, the government of the people, by the people, and for the people have much tighter and stricter rules not only as to driving on streets, roads, and highways - but concerning a wide array of other activities, such as carrying and firing guns, selling and buying foods of all kinds, and restrictions on who gets employed in contrast to who does not get employed or loses their job.
Branding people at large has already begun (as for exit-&-re-entry out of and back into country and state fairs and other public gatherings) -- those who are already of a mindset to get tattooed wherever with whatever imagery, as has implanting tracking devices for military personnel. National I.D. is being contemplated, and the ultimate implementation of an IRS-reassigned consumer-consumption Fair Tax would probably include an implanted satanic anti-terrorism security tattoo or chip relating to the Antichrist number of 666.
It should be noted that many of the presumed "requirements" enacted by government are - believe it or not - voluntary . . . and have always been voluntary, right from the start.
For example, getting a Social Security number is neither mandatory nor required. But try to get by in our modern society without one!
Getting a Marriage License from the State is not required for matrimony nor marriage, but think of the complications if one does not have one! Without marriage being certified by the government, there is no legal provision relating to Social Security payments, legal inheritance determinations, protections and parameters relating to family law, divorce settlements involving IRS-related Federal-Reserve-Note currency, child support concerning social workers, child abuse allegations and investigations and intervention, public-school identification, etc.
It almost goes without saying that to drive a car on government taxpayer-funded streets, roads, and highway necessitates that those who so do drive thereon MUST possess a current and valid Driver's License and Registration Card for the vehicles. . . . or else they will be arrested and worse.
There will be one final type of "voluntary" government-assisted registration coming up in the future, but one which the saints of Jesus Christ are vehemently and specifically forbidden to partake in:
Revelation 13:11 Then I saw another beast who rose out of the earth; he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke like a dragon.
12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.
13 He works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of humans;
14 and by the signs which he is allowed to work in the presence of the beast, he deceives those who reside on Earth, bidding them make an image for the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived;
15 and he was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast so that the image of the beast could even speak, and to cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
16 Also he causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,
17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of his name.
18 This calls for wisdom: let him who has understanding reckon the number of the beast, for it is a human number, his number is six hundred and sixty-six.
This financial and economic-transaction scheme will be worldwide, international, perhaps integrated not simply into some reformed or restructured IRS but also the Federal Trade Commission, Dept of Commerce, Securities and Exchange Commission, the United Nations and NATO, etc. and make it VERY inconvenient for Christian saints living during The Great Tribulation trying to survive without the Mark of the Beast on them when contemplating purchase of gasoline and food, utilities and other life-sustaining necessities.
Revelation 14:1 Then I looked, and wow, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads.
2 And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps,
3 and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the Earth.
4 They are these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins; these are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb,
5 and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless.
6 Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who reside on Earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people;
7 and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God and give Him glory, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the fountains of water."
8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of her polluted passion."
9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If any one worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,
10 they also shall drink the wine of God's wrath, poured non-mixed into the cup of His anger, and they shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
11 And the smoke of their torment goes up forever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."
12 Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their works follow them!"
Such certainly does not bespeak of nor infer a pre-Tribulation Rapture!
Indeed:
Revelation 13:1 And I saw a Beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon his horns and a blasphemous name upon his heads.
2 And the beast who I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like a bear's, and his mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to him the Dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.
3 One of his heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but his mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth followed the Beast with wonder.
4 Men worshiped the Dragon, for he had given his authority to the Beast, and they worshiped the Beast, saying, "Who is like the Beast, and who can fight against him?"
5 And the Beast was given a mouth mouthing haughty and blasphemous words, and he was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months;
6 he opened his mouth to rant blasphemies against God, blaspheming His name and His residence, that is, those who reside in Heaven.
7 Also he was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given him over every tribe and people and tongue and nation,
8 and all who reside on earth will worship him, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain.
9 If any one has an ear, let him hear:
10 If any one is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if any one slays with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
Thus it seems that if one, at that time, tries to "fight City Hall" (whether with firearms or whatever), City Hall will win -- with the non-cooperative offender either being shot (if a firearms violation) or being escorted off by law-enforcement officers to some detention-center confinement and incarceration.
However, "that (as Paul Harvey might say) is not the end of the story."
The word sword in Revelation 1:16, 2:12, 2:16, 6:8, 19:15, and 19:21 is different than any other word for "sword" in the contents of the entire Holy Bible. The Greek lettering is: rhomphia, and apparently (according to the contexts) it always refers to an active Divine sword which executes human beings.
It will be used, perhaps not merely on the rebellious and blasphemous armies of The Beast and The False Prophets alluded to in Revelation chapters 13-20, but on ALL those all over planet Earth who are in cohoots with and support the to-be-decimated armies gathered at Armageddon when Christ visibly and bodily returns on His white horse prancing upon clouds of glory on the way down to the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, how are and will the Moral Minority who are now immodestly misdressed (particularly during warm weather, with loose-long-haired mopheadedness, naked-armed sleeveslessness, nude-legged slackslessness exposing themselves in knee-cap or higher shorts, and soxless feet exposed with noisy flipflopping sandals) be modestly rectified for consistently-decent appearance when in general public view?
Some of the carnally immature and ignorant will "get it" and "get the point" by actually adjusting their style of dress before appearing in general public view by mere acquisition of sufficient and enlightening information giving to them by courageous and moral missionaries (hopefully of the Christian and orthodox-Jewish type, rather than simply islamic fundamentalists). For those, the following is and will be sufficient for behavior change:
(1) Public and private school education in what the Old-and-New-Testaments Holy Bible has to say about modesty details.
(2) Prohibition of immodest imagery in and on all sorts of media (whether on cereal or raisin or syrup boxes or containers in grocery stores, on magazines near racks when checking out groceries with the cashier, during TV advertisement commercials, on roadside billboards, in art museums, at segregated public beaches, beauty pageants, athletic competitions, and I'm sure the reader gets the idea concerning and involving other sundry media).
Sometimes heard on the radio is a song with the lyrics: "I get by with a little help from my friends."
Peer pressure to try to please or cowardly adjust to others is a powerful incentive to commit all sorts of diabolical deeds with evil party spirit. It is that which causes normally-rational person to get drunk, swear, steal, talk and do what is sexually vulgar and immoral, do narcotics, smoke, etc.
Proverbs 13:20 He who walks with wise men becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer
harm.
First Corinthians 15:33 Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals.
Clearly, those who associate with warm-weather exhibitionists exposing mopheadedness, naked-armed sleeveslessness, nude-legged slackslessness, and soxlessness in flipflops will be circumstantially forced to identify with and imitate such perpetrators of licentuous lasciviousness.
The answer is to disassociate and depart away from such evil influencers . . .
Romans 16:17 I appeal to you, brethren, to take note of those who create dissensions and difficulties, in opposition to the doctrine which you have been taught; avoid them.
Second Corinthians 11:13 For such [warm-weather-immodesty-promoting] men/women are false apostles, deceitful workmen/workwomen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
Ephesians 5:7 Therefore do not associate with them
First Timothy 6:20 Oh Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the godless chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called [doctrines-of-demons excuses to illicitly expose should-be-covered body parts] "knowledge"
Second Timothy 2:14 Remind them of this, and charge them before the Lord to avoid disputing about [doctrines-of-demon excuses to illicitly expose should-be-covered body parts] words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.
Second Timothy 2:16 Avoid such godless [doctrines-of-demon excuses to illicitly expose should-be-covered body parts] chatter, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness
Second Timothy 3:5 [Immodest female-human exhibitionists are] holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people.
Second John 1:10 If any one comes to you and does not bring this doctrine [of Biblical warm-weather modesty], do not receive him/her into the house or give him/her any greeting,
Second John 1:11 for he/she who greets him/her shares his/her wicked work.
. . . and instead get to know Scripturally-decent-modesty new friends:
Exodus 18:21 Moreover choose able men from all the people, such as fear God, men who are trustworthy and who hate a bribe; and place such men over the people as rulers of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
First Corinthians 16:16 I urge you to be subject to such men and to every fellow worker and laborer.
First Corinthians 16:18 for they refreshed my spirit as well as yours. Give recognition to such men.
Philippians 2:29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy; and honor such men
Third John 1:8 So we ought to support such men, that we may be fellow workers in the truth.
The fear of man has been, and yet is, a serious adversary against godly righteousness:
Exodus 23:2 You shall not follow a multitude to do evil; nor shall you bear witness in a suit, turning aside after a multitude, so as to pervert justice.
Leviticus 5:4 If any one utters with his lips a rash oath to do evil or to do good, any sort of rash oath that men swear, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it he shall in any of these be guilty.
Deuteronomy 1:17 You shall not be partial in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's; and the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.
Proverbs 16:12 It is an abomination to kings to do evil, for the throne is established by righteousness.
Proverbs 24:8 He who plans to do evil will be called a mischief-maker.
Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully set to do evil.
Isaiah 1:16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil.
Isaiah 29:20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off.
Jeremiah 1:17 But you, gird up your loins; get up, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.
Ezekiel 2:6 And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, nor be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you sit upon scorpions; be not afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.
Lamentably, for many others - who are bound by superstitious rote conformity, addicted to wrong-headed "seasonal-necessity" bad habits of misdressing with legs-baring shorts and soxless sandals during late spring and summer and early autumn - the following principles MUST be applied:
Psalm 32:9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not keep with you.
Proverbs 26:3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the back of fools.
Proverbs 29:19 By mere words a servant is not disciplined, for though he/she understands, he/she will not give heed.
Sometimes, nature itself more or less forces the immodest to become at least temporarily modest.
If a usually-immodest female human ventures out into space, she (of necessity) temporarily hides her immodesty by wearing a NASA spacesuit or equivalent.
If it is the middle of a Siberian or Arctic winter, and the temperature outdoors is below 30 F., severe frostbite would overcome bare skin in minutes, if not seconds - again forcing the usually-immodest female human to wear some kind of an Eskimo-like parka in that potentially-fatal environment.
Such persons who are, for a while, donned decently, might try to excuse their warm-weather immodesties later on when judged by the LORD on The Last Day with excuses like:
Matthew 7:22 (paraphrased) On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, temporarily dress modesty during severely-cold winter days (even though we instead wanted to lewdly expose ourselves as pollutive indecent exhibitionists) to cause us to continue to live on and thus erotically defile as many victims as we could with our consequentially-extended lifespans, and do many mighty works in your name?'
You might already know that that simply will not cut it with The Judge, due to impenitent motives and lurid attitudes deep down in their depraved hearts.
To them Jesus would say:
Luke 6:46 "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I tell you?
So, against such stubbornly non-compliant warm-weather exhibitionists, the following is and will be mandatory:
(3) Agreement with chignoned/long-sleeved/long-skirted/socks-wearing female modesty of husbands and boyfriends insisting that their wives and girlfriends be dressed completely modestly in while being in general public view, and threatening the rebel wives and girlfriends that those wives and girlfriends will not be transported, escorted, accompanied, nor have their expenses paid for by such husbands and boyfriends.
(4) Silencing anti-Christian ACLU, atheists, humanists, AUSCS, PAW, SPLC, theological heretics despising the Law, deviantly-demented and froward university and college professors, weaselword-proficient media commentators and criminal lawyers, and others contradicting and/or forbidding Scripture-based admonitions for decent modesty.
(5) Law-enforcement officers promptly ticketing and fining (and, if necessary, imprisoning or even executing - with courts-and-judges backup) immodest female exhibitionists in proportion to the indecent infraction.
To reiterate, if (under duress) the usually-immodest temporarily become decent modest with puritan-like, amish-reminiscent, islamic-fundamentalist garb, won't that give them redemptive brownie points of pardon on Judgment Day?
Will such temporarily-compliant decency compensate as their irrevocable ticket into the Heaven of 24/7 Modesty and Purity? Will it SAVE them eternally?
Not necessarily. They will end up damned anyway, concordant with:
Psalm 119:115 Leave me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.
Psalm 139:19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, Oh God, and that humans of blood would go away from me
Matthew 7:23 And then will I say to them: "I never knew you; get away from me, you evildoers."
Matthew 25:41 Then He will say to those at His left hand, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels"
Luke 13:27 But He will say, "I tell you, I do not know where you come from; go away from me, all you workers of iniquity!"
. . . but - even though it will not do the temporarily-modest any good for themselves - at least what transpires because of the modesty forced on them against their inner desires is and will be beneficial overall to society in general, and particularly for the Lord's Christian saints who unfortunately have to be in continual but thankfully remote-enough proximity to such wickedness-desiring aberrants.
Does God lose count concerning pseudo-excusable shortcomings which "understandably"-imperfect people commit who arrogantly take advantage of His [alleged] pansy-wimp "unconditional-love" and "unconditional-forgiveness" grace?
Amos 1:3 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron.
Amos 1:6 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Gaza, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they carried into exile a whole people to deliver them up to Edom.
Amos 1:9 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Tyre, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they delivered up a whole people to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brotherhood.
Amos 1:11 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Edom, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because he pursued his brother with the sword, and cast off all pity, and his anger tore perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever.
Amos 1:13 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of the Ammonites, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have ripped up women with child in Gilead, that they might enlarge their border.
Amos 2:1 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because he burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom.
Amos 2:4 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked.
Amos 2:6 Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes . . .
Many diverse manifestations of the deviant immentality of Satan's primal lie to naked Eve in the Garden of Eden have occurred, now occur, and will re-occur in the future. They are legion.
One characteristic of the Devils deceptive dishonesty is to communicate misrepresentative, overbroad, half-lie presumptions:
(01) "You will not die."
(02) "Everybody's doing it."
(03) "People will automatically know what is right without reading the Bible and without written laws."
(04) "That evil I saw might have changed for the better by now."
(05) "I can stop before going all the way." "Just a little kissing and hugging."
(06) "A little bit of investigation into previously-experienced wickedness will not mean totally getting into it again."
(07) "Just one more drink."
(08) "What and who will it hurt if I do it?"
(09) "The porn I saw might not be there anyone."
(10) "I have to sneak a peek to see how bad it really is now."
(11) "I cannot be popular with my friends if I don't do a little worldly sinning."
(12) "Mainline churches have accepted feminists and homogays as acceptable and forgiven Christians."
(13) "Evolution has been proven over and over, and both fossils and radioactive dating show it's a scientific fact."
(14) "Abortion is a personal medical choice of a woman's right for healthy reproductive freedom."
(15) "All the manuscripts of Scripture do not agree, so you cannot trust any of them."
(16) "All the Bible translations have different wording inferring different meanings, and who says which is correct?"
(17) "Older manuscripts are more reliable than recently-discovered ones."
(18) "Most theological authorities accept traditional commentary explanations for Bible semantics meanings."
(19) "God is unconditional love, not insensitive hate."
(20) "Guys enjoy seeing gals who are publicly dressed sexy on warm days to get tan, stop sweating, and avoid heatstroke."
[ At this point, it behooves yours truly to mention something.
The verse:
Psalm 121:6 The sun shall not smite you by day, nor the moon by night.
. . . I have always considered somewhat strange, if not kind of silly. Why that is is not because of the first part of the saying, but rather the second part about the Moon "smiting" anyone.
It, of course, makes sense that the Lord would protect His own from sudden solar flares scorching His saints with severe sunburn and/or heatstroke.
But how could the Moon ever do the same, being mere reflected sunlight?
Maybe it refers to moonlight exposing the covert location of soldiers trying to hide in the darkness from an enemy (particularly before our modern-tech assortment of motion sensors, radar, and infrared detectors).
Perhaps it [also] refers to pagan occultic superstition about same imaginary moon spirit or god or demon presumably inflicting voodoo harm.
Other than that, such as fears about supposed non-predicted eclipses or moonlight failure for whatever cause, I (as a NASA-cognizant scientist) cannot think of whatever else it might be ].
Now, to continue:
(21) "Parts of the Bible were written for an ancient people far away, long ago, and no longer apply."
(22) "We are under grace, not legalistic law."
(23) "Spanking or slapping children is child abuse."
(24) "Earth is getting critically overpopulated and polluted by fossil fuels causing emergency global warming."
(25) "Old people don't need to be dependent upon Social Security and Medicare; they should learn to invest instead."
(26) "Women are equal to men, have gentler different perspectives, and should receive equal pay for equal work."
(27) "Humans should relocate so that whales and polar bears, liable to become extinct, survive."
(28) "Men need to make way and compensate for battered women."
(29) "Separation of church (or synagogue or mosque) and state is the law; imposing public-nuisance disturbing-the-peace proselitizing is unlawful."
(30) "To condemn anyone for any legally-protected thing they do in this land of freedom and liberty is a hate crime."
(31) "Scholars disagree on the interpretation of Biblical words."
(32) "There are so many cults who think they are right and everyone else is wrong."
(33) "Harshly applying legalistic out-of-context Scripture verses in cruel intolerance is illegal discrimination."
(34) "Everyone has their own opinion, and no one's is any better than anyone else's."
(35) "What atheists say and peaceful buddhists chant is partly true and psychologically redemptive."
(36) "Churches are full of mean-spirited nitpicky hypocrites anyway."
(37) "God made people naked in the first place, so why feel guilty and ashamed of displaying the nude human body?"
The above half-lie (not half-"truth") irrationalization and doctrines of demons have been aptly commented upon by wise old Solomon:
Ecclesiastes 7:29 Hey, this alone I found, that God made humans upright, but they have sought out many devices.
It has been said that there is nothing humankind has assembled and operates from God-given resources that cannot be undone.
Anything that humans do can be undone...in contrast to everything which God the Creator has done cannot be altered:
(a) Who can stop the Sun from shining?
(b) Who can stop gravity from working?
(c) Who can prevent light from normally travelling 186,000 mps?
(d) Who can alter the orbit of the nearest star 4 light-years distant?
(e) Who can prevent trees and grass all over Earth from blossoming each spring?
(f) Who can prevent leaves dying and falling down in autumn?
(g) Who can prevent a godly, holy and pure, heterosexual and non-homo-effeminate/non-homo-sodomite, rainbow with many colors from appearing in a receding rainstorm cloud?
(h) Who can prevent a godly, holy and pure, heterosexual non-homogay/non-homo-transvestite rainbow from appearing in a prism struck by sunlight?
It behooves humanity to accommodatingly adjust themselves to what and how the Creator has immutably created, terrestially and celestially.
How they are supposed to get vital know-how and knowledge to (in full trustworthy confidence) do that, does not reliably come from differing human opinions nor a confusing plethora of diversely fickle conjecture, superstition, prejudice, nor random presuppositions....but rather from the entire contents of the canonical Sacred-66-books Judeo-Christian (Old-&-New-Testaments) Holy Bible -- consisting of the inerrant ben Asher Masoretic Hebrew Old-Testament Text AND the equally-infallible Scrivener/Trinitarian Greek New-Testament Text (transliterated and translated into the best of the KJV, Wesley, RSV, NASV, NRSV and other English versions, for English-speaking people).
Such Divinely-inspired written-and-perfectly-preserved absolutes etched and engraved into written alphabet letters comprising commonly-defined-and-universally-understood words and phrases and sentences cannot be overruled nor abrogated by deviously-infidel apostates and heretics, but remains untouchable and out of their destructive reach.
There are many demented, weirdo, psychiatrically sick and mentally-ill sinful subversives who have tried to maliciously question, ignore, disregard, contradict, ridicule, twist, and blaspheme the precise and exact Word of God (typically regarded as the words contained within aforementioned copies of The Holy Bible in various languages and renditions):
Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all non-godliness and wickedness of humans who by their wickedness suppress the truth.
19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
20 Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse;
21 for although they knew God they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools,
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural,
27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error [like AIDS].
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct.
29 They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips,
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents,
31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
32 Though they know God's decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.
Second Timothy 3:5 ....holding the form of religion but denying the power of it. Avoid such people.
Second Timothy 3:6 For among them are those who make their way into households and capture weak women [sucking up every tidbit of warped cable-TV chitter-chatter crap they can], burdened with sins and swayed by various impulses,
Second Timothy 3:7 who will listen to anybody and can never arrive at a knowledge of the
truth.
Ephesians 5:7 Therefore do not associate with them...
First Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived, evil companionships corrupt good habits.
Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.
13 Do not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16 Do you not know that if you yield yourselves to any one as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.
20 When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 But then what return did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? The end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is sanctification and its end, eternal life.
In stark contrast to defiling and pollutive, semi-indecently-exposed, immodest (subtly or overtly flaunting warm-weather-excused loose-long-haired mopheadedness, sleevesless naked arms, slacksless nude legs, and/or bared open-toes-and-soles with soxless flipflop sandals) and insubordinately-harassive sexist feminists imposing themselves as antagonistic chauvenistic predators, repulsively-queer homogays and homosodomites, absurd evolutionists wallowing in their ridiculous anti-creationist mythology, deceitfully-lying atheists, baby-murdering abortionists and compliant mangled-female-body conspirators, Jew-hating antisemites, and more....are some brave and courageous, faithful, fundamentalist and orthodox, genuine and authentic [Christian] believers who have done, continue to do, and will continue to do....the very opposite:
Proverbs 30:5 Every word of God proves true; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.
Second Corinthians 4:2 We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
Galatians 1:11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel.
Galatians 1:12 For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Second Timothy 3:16 All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
Second Timothy 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Second Peter 3:15 And think of the patience of our Lord as salvation, as our beloved brother Paul also has written to you according to the wisdom given to him
16 as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to understand, which the non-learned and unstable pervert, as also they do the other Scripture, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, beloved, knowing beforehand, beware lest being led away with the error of the lawless, you fall from your own stability.
18 But grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.
Romans 8:3 For God has done what the law [and we ourselves], weakened by the flesh, could not do: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh [by atoning for us by Himself alone]....
The verse above describes the means by and through which the Lord Himself causes His Spirit to become ingrained (but not "infest") a "converted [Christian] believer" and eerily empowering him or her to both understand and perform what they did not and could not previously understand and perform.
IMAGINARY DIALOGUE BETWEEN Mainline Religion Apostate (MRA) and (ME):
MRA: "That's your opinion."
ME: "Duh! Does that make it wrong? Who else's "opinion" did you presume you were talking about?"
MRA: "Other people might have different opinions."
ME: "Does that make them all correct?"
MRA: "WHO is to judge?"
ME: "Apparently you presume that you are."
MRA: "Why are you so superstitiously gullible?"
ME: "It must first be determined IF I am superstitiously gullible, then the "why" of it could be discussed."
MRA:: "So you DO believe some of that stuff in The Bible. Why?"
ME: "Because I CAN. Not only that, but I WANT to do what I can."
MRA: "Translations of the Bible into differing English versions were the result of interpreting words differently."
ME: So, the RSV's word: "passover" in Acts actually means KJV's word: "Easter;"
KJV's "corn of wheat" actually mean RSV's and NASV's "grain of wheat;"
KJV's 1st-Timothy-5:14's word: "women" actually means RSV's and NASV's and NIV's word: "widows;"
NIV's 1st-Corinthians-7:1 words: "not marry" actually mean KJV's and RSV's and NASV's words: "not touch;"
RSV's 1st-Corinthians-11:16 words: "no other custom" actually mean KJV's words: "no such custom;"
"stone" actually means: "fish" and "serpent" actually means: "scorpion?""
MRA: I never said that."
ME: "Why not? Prove it! Hurry up! If every word in the entire Bible had discrepant-to-each-other "interpretations," nothing in all of Scripture would mean anything."
MRA: "I never said that! Besides, majorities rule on what means what."
ME: "Did you really want to say that, because if taken to its logical and final conclusion,
what if majorities were to agree to lie?
How would you pick and choose exactly what in the Bible was misinterpreted,
in contrast to exactly what in the Bible wasn't misinterpreted?"
MRA: "I gotta go. I'm scheduled to meet someone within an hour."
Often, we hear people state that they cannot or will not believe in a God who would torture non-cooperative humans with fire forever.
I suppose there are two parts relating to their assertion, one being the torture part and the other being the forever part.
But whether they claim to believe in a God as they described, or not, is - in one sense - quite irrelevant, because that is exactly what God who in fact and actually exists will do and what God will cause to happen.
The temporal and earthly given environment people who are alive are now in will cease to exist, and an entirely new "playing field" will come about - without measured beginnings-and-endings time and space.
Eternity will be in effect - eternity being a word of abstraction which we humans understand the definition of, but certainly cannot comprehend (as we are now in our limitations) the everlasting full essence of. Scripture has predicted it:
Isaiah 66:24 And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.
Mark 9:47 And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,
Mark 9:48 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
Revelation 20:10 And the Devil who had deceived them was thrown into the Lake of Fire and Brimstone, where the Beast and the False Prophet are; and they shall be tormented day and night to the ages of the ages.
Revelation 20:15 and if any one's name was not found written in the book of life, they were thrown into the Lake of Fire.
Obviously, it behooves the humble and rational to correctly choose what destination to head for pertaining to eternity, namely: eternal bliss with no-time-and-space-limited sublime and ecstatic fellowship with the Lord, His angels, and redeemed always-perfect human saints in glory . . . rather than solitary confinement in Outer Darkness (like being in a deep cave underground where in complete darkness one cannot even see his hand held in front of his face) being tortured with invisible flames forever:
Matthew 22:13 Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.'
Matthew 25:30 And throw the worthless servant into the Outer Darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.
Luke 16:24 And he called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.'
Luke 16:25 But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.